Chicago vs. New York
- Elizabeth Redhead
- Jan 2, 2018
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 4, 2021
The argument of Chicago vs. New York is about to be settled once and for all! No, I lied. I cannot possibly base my full opinion of New York on the one weekend that I spent there for a conference this past November, but I can point out some of the major differences that I noticed between these two cities.
Friday
Flying into Laguardia and seeing the skyline for the first time, my thought was, of course, that New York is undeniably larger than Chicago. When I walked through the airport, I couldn’t help but notice that it was very outdated. I’m not usually one to notice things like this, but I was surprised. Chicago’s airports are both fairly new and I suppose that I assumed New York’s would just be better. In Laguardia’s defense, I believe that it is being renovated, but I also heard that “It’s the worst place in the world.” I guess it’s just up to your personal experience.
While I really hate spending money on an Uber when there is public transportation available, I had no idea how far away the closest subway stop would be and I was eager to get into the city. I soon realized that an Uber couldn’t pick me up from the doors of the airport and I would have to shuttle to a separate parking lot to find a ride. It was all an effort to reduce traffic around the airport, but I thought that it was a little strange. I asked a man advertising cabs how much he thought it would be to get to my hotel and he estimated the trip to cost about $40. Uber it was.
Finding the shuttle wasn’t hard, and neither was finding my Uber once it arrived. The drive wasn’t too long, but I did notice that there was fairly significant traffic along the interstate at 1 o’clock on a Friday afternoon.
I was dropped off by my hotel in Brooklyn and I found my roommate, Molly, and her mom in the lobby. They were kind enough to let me stay one night with them so that I could have more free time in the city. I dropped my stuff off in the room and we went to walk around Williamsburg. While walking through the neighborhood, I realized that there were bags of trash on the edges of the sidewalk waiting to be picked up by garbage trucks. One of my professors was telling a couple other students and me about this strange difference between Chicago and New York. Apparently, New York doesn’t have the alleys behind its buildings like Chicago does, so whenever the trash is put out, its put out on the sidewalks. In all honesty, I found this to be the most interesting difference between the two cities.
After dinner that night, Molly had to study for a biology final that she had coming up the next week and her and her mom assured me that I didn’t have to stay in the hotel room. While I wanted to go explore, I was nervous about going out by myself, so I chose to go to the rooftop bar and restaurant and test my underage luck to see if I could simply find a seat.
Luckily, no one gave me trouble and I got to take in the beautiful view of the city. While sitting there, I realized that you cannot see the Chicago skyline across water unless you’re on a boat while New York has plenty of viewpoints where you can gaze across the water and stare at the skyline for hours. New York definitely beats Chicago in that department.
Saturday
Saturday started with breakfast with Molly down the street at another hotel we had seen the day before. When we were finished, Molly went to her sister’s house, and I took a nap back in the room before I left for Manhattan. The following commute is the best part of the story.
The subway in New York and the El in Chicago are two TOTALLY DIFFERENT beasts. Maybe it’s my bias speaking, but Chicago’s system is much more organized and user-friendly than New York’s. Chicago has colors and directions. New York has colors, letters, directions, and a much more complicated system. I decided to skip the part where I would have spent 20 minutes trying to figure out the best route and used my phone for directions as to which line to take. While that was helpful, finding the stairs to the stop proved difficult when I walked a good four blocks too far and had to backtrack. I finally reached the ticket machine and fed it a $10 bill. I expected $7 in change and, sure enough, I got it. What I wasn’t expecting was for those $7 to be in dollar coins.
The next eternity consisted of me trying to swipe the flimsy ticket through the reader while simultaneously trying to figure out how to get my absolutely giant suitcase through the turnstile. After a very embarrassing struggle, I finally asked the subway employee for help. He vaguely described what I’m sure were simple directions, but I was already flustered and frustrated that the employee only sat behind the glass and wouldn’t get up to help me. As it turns out, all I had to do was scan myself through the turnstile, come back out, get my suitcase, and have the employee buzz me in through the emergency door. This simple task probably took 7 minutes, but I finally made it. The whole ordeal made me realize that CTA employees are much more friendly and much more helpful.
When the train finally came, I noticed that the cars were much bigger than they are in Chicago. There wasn’t a screen that displayed the next stop and sometimes the announcer wouldn’t announce what stop was coming up, so I really had to pay attention to the signs posted at the actual stops. I figured that if I ever lived in New York, this would be a huge problem for me because more often than not, I fall asleep on the train.
That night, while the whole DePaul group and I were walking around the city, I couldn’t help but notice that there was still traffic around 11pm and midnight. There were so many people out that if it wouldn’t have been so dark, I could have been fooled into thinking that it was 11 in the morning instead of 11 at night. I suppose it was a Saturday night, and we were in an area with a lot of restaurants and bars, but I still felt like there were a lot of people out for such a cold and late night.
Sunday
Sunday consisted of an early breakfast with the group and the conference until about 2 pm. We had a little free time before we planned to check out of the hotel and start for the airport, so a couple of us ended up in the Eataly which was, of course, much bigger than the one in downtown Chicago. The Uber to the airport took an hour because of the traffic so I was able to sneak in a nap.
Checking into the airport would have been easy except that I realized I had forgotten to check my incredibly large suitcase once the group and I were heading to the gate. One other member and I went back to the check in area and noticed that one of the airport employees was being extremely rude to a couple. From what I overheard, the couple had missed their flight and were trying to figure out when their next flight would be. The employee was yelling at the couple saying that they didn’t “understand the value of time.” It was a really strange situation. The other group member and I just stared at each other and tried not to laugh at the display of exactly how not to treat customers.
Overall, New York was wonderful and I fully intend to go back and spend much more time wandering the streets and getting more familiar with the different areas. Based on just that weekend, here are my main takeaways:
1. New York is absolutely monstrous.
If big cities overwhelm you, I would not suggest a visit.
2. People in New York really are more rude than people in Chicago and the Midwest.
Maybe it’s just my bias, or maybe Midwesterners really do have some core sense of manners that we can’t get rid of regardless of whether we’re on the countryside or in a big city.
3. New York is more than just Chicago on steroids, it’s a totally different, uniquely beautiful place.
I absolutely cannot wait to go back.
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